November 6, 2009 Four Mass. prison guards hurt by inmate

BOSTON (AP) - Four guards at a maximum security state prison in Massachusetts have been injured by an inmate wielding a homemade weapon.

The president of the correctional officers union says the inmate slashed one guard's neck and stabbed another in the cheek Wednesday night at the Souza-Baranowksi Correction Center in Shirley after being told he would have to share a cell. Two other guards suffered minor injuries.

A prisons spokeswoman confirmed that four correctional officers were hurt, and said their injuries were not life-threatening. Department of Correction Commissioner Harold Clarke said the incident was isolated.

Union president Steve Kenneway and Leslie Walker, executive director of the prisoner advocacy group Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, say the prison is dangerously overcrowded.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)